Good Enough

I just browsed through a fewblogarticles about other people’s learning tips and experience, and it dawned upon me that everyone who gives a damn about themselves, are striving to begood enough.

It probably takes some pressure off that I’ll be pit against some of the brightest and smartest people in NUS, and it’ll be more so the case if I actually get accepted by USP. Strive to be good enough, not better than others. I often get the misconception that in order to be successful, I have to be on par with others.

Ditch that.

Reading through my own learning experiences here and more recently my Quora post, I realize my thoughts and personality took some drastic changes over this short period of time. From a kid who plays video games all day, not giving a damn about myself, into an individual who wants to do nothing but get better at my own craft.

The first few posts brings back bittersweet memories. How I used to study the C++ tutorial in the air-conditioned mess in camp, on my tiny iPhone screen and even made notes! I treated it really seriously. Looking back, I don’t regret putting in so much effort in taking down this challenge. Coding has brought much joy to my life, and also made me find my sense of direction in life. In fact, now I’m revisiting the coding ‘problem sets’ that I used to do, in search of more efficient methods to solve them. In addition, I’m also attempting the last problem set which I never dared to even try back then.

I used to think that I wasn’t getting any better. But every time I look back, it’s a realization that I’ve improved over time to become good enough. Maybe that’s the trick? We never feel that we’re improving in the moment, but when we turn our heads to review the past, that’s when the realization comes.